


Alloy

by rabidsamfan



Category: Avengers (2012), Marvel
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Gen, Kid Fic, Minor Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Parent Tony Stark, a coda for Ironsides, always a girl Tony Stark - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-14 11:32:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16491767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidsamfan/pseuds/rabidsamfan
Summary: James Edward Stark-Rogers has a surprise for his Mama.  Maybe even two surprises.





	Alloy

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ironsides](https://archiveofourown.org/works/461340) by [copperbadge](https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperbadge/pseuds/copperbadge). 



> For Sam. Because I can't draw.

Jimmy has to wait until he is five before he can get into Mama’s workshop by himself. (He figured out how to do the clicks and buzzes for Dummy’s access code when he was three, but whistling the right notes is hard.) He’s been in there before, of course, lots of times, but that was when he was still little and babyish enough to need grownups watching to see that he doesn’t get hurt on the hot and sharp and acidy stuff.

And it isn’t like Mama isn’t already in there. It’s just that she doesn’t have to come to the door to let him in this time. Besides, she’s halfway inside the armor and singing one of the songs that Jimmy’s not supposed to know the words to until he’s older. (He does know them, of course, and lots of other words too. He can talk in English and Spanish and Russian and Sokovian and French and Italian and now that he can whistle he can talk in Bot, too.) So Jimmy clicks a hello to the bots and puts his precious burden onto the stool by the workbench because he’s still not tall enough to put it on the bench itself.

“Mama,” he calls. “I brought you coffee!” 

The singing stops and Mama wriggles out of the armor. “Sustenance!” she says, and comes over to ruffle Jimmy’s hair and pick up the mug. 

“I made it myself,” Jimmy tells her, but not soon enough that she hasn’t taken a drink yet. “Black as midnight and strong enough to walk on.” That’s the way Mama likes her coffee when she’s working. She’s said so lots of times.

He must have surprised her enough that some of the coffee went down the wrong pipe, because she coughs a lot and puts the mug down in a hurry and her eyes are wet. “Right,” she squeaks, and then says it again in her regular voice. “Right. Um. That’s ... that’s good, Jiffypop. But I only need it that strong when it’s after your bedtime.”

He scrunches up his nose and tries not to giggle at how red her face is. But it’s hard to do puppy eyes when you want to giggle. “Didn’t I do it right?” he asks, as plaintively as he can.

But she sees that he wants to laugh and taps his nose. “Next time, ask your Pop to help,” she tells him. Then she blinks and looks around. “Where is your Pop, anyway?” She even checks under the bench, where Daddy wouldn’t fit even if he tried. “How did you get in here?”

Jimmy has to put his hands over his face to hide his laughter, so he doesn’t see when Mama swoops him up into a big hug and when he takes his hands down her nose is right in front of his so he bumps it and stares into the way her two eyes turn into one big eye. “I can talk like Dummy now,” he confides.

“Really?” She says, carrying him over to the big chair where they both can fit comfortably. “And what can you say?”

Jimmy’s been practicing, so he knows just what he wants to click and pop and snap and whistle. Mama listens, her head cocked to one side.

“I have heard Dummy say that,” she says, thoughtfully. “What does it mean?”

“You don’t know?” Jimmy asks, surprised. Mama knows most things, but then again he’s never heard her talk in Bot before. 

She hugs him tighter. “Tell me.”

“It means,” and he clicksnaps the first word, “I”, popclickCsharp, “love”, sliding whistle from E to high C, “you.”


End file.
